Monday, August 4, 2008

In case you are unaware of what Digg is, it is a social news site where any member can submit an interesting article link that they find on the web, and then all members can vote on whether they like it or not. If it is very popular and gets a lot of votes, it is moved to the front page of the website, so everyone is sure to see it.

But it is a bit more social than that...you can even comment on the articles, make friends, leave shout messages to each other, etc.

But there is a serious problem with the website. It is NOT snail friendly. If you are the owner of an older slower PC, you could end up ripping your hair out while trying to use the site, as a recent rant on my personal blog shows.

The last thing I asked in my rant post, was if anyone knew of a Digg Lite and if they did to please supply the URL. Nobody came to my rescue with a link for me to try, though.

I did a little looking around on the site and a bit of digging of my own, partly in the source code of the very slow digg.com site, originally looking for ways to make the site load faster, possibly by blocking unnecessary ad servers in my HOSTS file.

Instead, I found something even better. What I found were two links, one of which was commented out in the code, so it wouldn't appear on the page.

I am happy to announce that owners of older slower computers do not have to suffer with Digg's over-scripted, slow loading, bloated main site. There are two other options that you can try.

First, you will need to have a Digg account, which you can only obtain on the main site. So if you are having problems with loading or using that site, I suggest you use another computer to sign up. Do it at a friend's or relative's house, or school, work, or a library if you have to. Once you have an account, you are all set to go to one of the alternative sites and start Digging.

Digg Lite

The first alternative site is their mobile version that is meant for hand-held portable devices, like cell phones and PDA's. But it will work fine in your desktop browser, as well, and it is much lighter than the main site, with much less scripting.

Give this one a try first and see if your browser and computer can handle it before trying the even lighter version. This could be all you will need.

When you click a link on the main list page, you are taken to an individual article page where you can access the link to the web page where the article appears, vote on the article, plus read comments. Sometimes some of the comments look a little messed up or seem a bit out of order, but the majority are still readable.

The only things you will not be able to do is the more social interactive features such as make comments, browse profiles, leave shouts to friends, or submit article links of your own. But there is still plenty of fun to be had with this version, with what features it does supply.

Digg Ultra Lite

Now if you have tried the lighter mobile version and it still isn't working out for you and you need something even lighter, there is Digg River, the original ultra lite mobile site with very little scripting and very little in the way of features.

It is just the headlines, links, and descriptions, along with a voting button. There is nothing social about this version...no comments or any other features.

It is very good for finding interesting things to read, though. Plenty of that there. And if you hate the comments on Digg and would prefer never to see them again, this version is definitely for you. This is the one I prefer, and precisely for that reason.

Comfort Tip: If the text on the Digg River page is too small for you to read, try holding down your CTRL key and hitting the plus (+) key till it is a comfortable size. (If this affects other web pages, hold down the CTRL key and hit the minus (-) key till it is normal size again)

So now you don't have to be left out of Digg entirely, just because you have an older slower computer. You can still enjoy yourself, as long as you don't mind giving up the more social features, in the process.

6 comments:

You said, "I don't want the front page crap. I would rather have all the hidden gems that never have a fair shot of making it to the front page."

That is what your friends list is for. To be able to follow posts that you do want to read.

BTW, that Digg lite version is worthless. I cannot follow my friends and use Digg the way I do on the main site.

I have powerful, responsive, extremely active friends on social networks. What you get out of social sites is determined by who you friend and how you follow them.

If your articles do not make it front page, it is about your use of Digg, not that they have no chance of getting there.

My latest client was on the front page 5 times in the last week with good articles.

Internet marketing articles and articles critical of Digg will not get to the front page. Forget about it. Your last two articles would just have been buried for being critical of Digg and would have gone no where no matter how many Diggs they got.

Do not submit this kind of article to Digg or the Digg mafia will bury your articles so much that your domain will get banned for spam.

Don't think that will happen, search "digg privacy" on Google and you will see the article that got my domain banned.

Chris, this is not a blog about internet marketing...it is a blog for people that have old slow computers and have no choice but to deal with what they have. If you were in the same position as we are, you would probably feel a lot different about this article.

My readers don't care about marketing websites...they just want to browse the web and read interesting things and have software that works. But modern technology is passing them by faster than they can keep up.

They are people with little money and can't afford better than what they already have.

They usually can't afford to buy cheap software, nevermind a new computer.

My job here is to present alternatives and point my visitors in the direction of sites and software friendly to their older hardware and operating systems. I wipe away their tears of frustration and give them wonderful things to smile about.

For my readers, the light or ultra lite versions of Digg is all they can use, or they can't use Digg at all.

Do you mean to come off as some sort of elitist that delivers a message to the world that Digg is only for people that have money and can afford to buy the latest and greatest in computer hardware? Because that is exactly how you are sounding in your comment.

Are you saying that some poverty stricken person stuck on an old slow win95 laptop they found in the trash, using a free dialup service, should not be able to enjoy Digg in any way at all and they should just forget that Digg exists? That is what it sounds like you are saying.

I am glad you have powerful friends, but what if you didn't have such a powerful computer, as well. What would you do? How would you use Digg at all if your hardware couldn't handle the main site and you didn't use one of the 2 alternatives I mentioned?

Show us the wonderful third option I didn't mention, that you are keeping a secret from us.

Additionally, it is possible to see what your friends are digging on the lite version, as long as you know their usernames.

And what makes you think I would market this article on Digg? It would do much better and reach the people that need to read it, if it were posted on the Win9x section of MSFN's forum, or on DonationCoder.com's blog and forum, for example.

I know where my own kind hang out and I know how to reach them and it isn't by submitting articles to Digg, which they couldn't even use till I wrote this article.

Walk a mile in our shoes before you criticize me for helping the less fortunate. Try surfing the web for the next 6 months on a 233mhz, 64mb ram, WinME computer on 33.6k dialup, like I am using.

Then come back here and tell us about your experiences with Digg's main site and what you used as an alternative, after you ripped your hair out.

If I took any of your points out of context, it was only because you took my post and whole blog out of context.

Given your history and life experiences with poverty, I would think you wouldn't criticize my post which was written to help people get the most out of what little they have.

It wasn't written for the people that have more. It wasn't written for you. When you called my discoveries that are beneficial to owners of slow pc's, worthless, I knew it wasn't for you.

Just like you, I am sharing what I have learned with people that could really use the info. And I am not charging them a dime for it. That isn't being a self righteous martyr. That's being generous.

When I wrote this post, I was excited...like I had found valuable burried treasure in my backyard. And being the generous person I am, I had to share it. I would not have felt right keeping the info to myself. And I followed it up with another post with more treasures.

They are the first 2 quality posts that I have made on this blog in quite some time. Before that I was actually feeling guilty about neglecting this blog, because I felt like I was letting people down. But I can't use this PC as a test machine and risk screwing it up right now, so I can't really write any good software reviews.

It would be a lot different for me to risk this pc so others don't have to risk theirs, if it wasn't acting as my main pc.

I am struggling and doing whatever I can to change my situation so I can go back to writing software reviews, developing software, and get my chatroom back online. And I am trying to do it without selling my soul or compromising my integrity and resorting to crap like paid posting.

That was how I ended up on your blog, in the first place. That is how I ended up ripping my hair out over Digg. I had made up my mind a long time ago that Digg was trash and had abandoned it.

You brought me back to it. And while I might not be able to use the site in quite the same way as you do, I did use it for something worthwhile...

hmm, winme? esp on that slow (low ram) a machine? google found your site when i searched K-Meleon Secure Win95 | "Windows 95" ~library | cd | ~dll | install | needsthe most useless "feature" of dirgg.com is that expander on comments that won't expand[pfft]. must be cuz one of those wak scripts :-)